42311 Pte H Robinson North'D Fus.
12420, 5729, 203870
Background, training and home service:
Pte Henry Robinson, a woollen spinner from Ossett, near Leeds was a "Derby/Group Scheme" Regular enlistment recruit. Born in 1892, he stood 5ft 2 3/4", weighed 126lbs and was married with two children. He attested his willingness to serve before a justice of the peace at Pontefract (?) on 11 December 1915, aged 23 years 6 months and, having chosen to defer his service, was posted to the Army Section B Reserve the following day (receiving a day's pay for the day of his Attestation). His Attestation was approved, and he himself called up and appointed to the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, on 15 June 1916, under the service number 12420. On 17 June he was posted to the 11th (Reserve) Battalion, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry , which from 1 September 1916 became the 8th Training Reserve battalion (he was recorded as being "attached").
Service in France:
On 6 October 1916, on disembarkation in France Pte Robinson was posted to the 13th (Service) Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, part of 62nd Infantry Brigade, 21st Division (new Service number 42311). At that time the battalion was readying for a move into I Corps area (completed on 7/8 October) to billets at La Bourse, prior to replacing the 2nd Northamptonshire in the front line in the Quarries sector, garrisoning and maintaining the "keeps" in this area (10 men per keep) and finding spoil parties for the 180th Tunnelling Company. They were relieved by 12th Battalion the following day. I suspect that he may still have been at Infantry Base Depot when transferred to the DLI (as below.)
Transfer to the 1/6th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry:
On one of his two "Statement of Services" forms there is a hard-to-decipher entry on the record which suggests a further transfer on 20 October 1916 to 1/6th Durham Light Infantry, 50th (Northumbrian) Division, only two weeks into his time in France. His service numbers with the DLI were, respectively, 5729 and 203870. This transfer is absent from the other Statement of Services sheet elsewhere in the record, which implies service with the Northumberland Fusiliers until posted to 5th Reserve Battalion DLI on 24 March 1917. However, in order for him to have two DLI Territorial service numbers, he would have to have been serving with the DLI before 1 March 1917 (when the renumbering took effect); in addition, the fact that both numbers appear on the medal roll strongly suggests that he served in France with his original 4-digit DLI service number prior to 1 March 1917 (and not that the 5th (Reserve) Battalion - a home formation - was his first posting, as might otherwise be inferred). On 20th October 1916 the 1/6 DLI was at Henecourt Wood, also in the Departement of the Somme, on fatigues, erecting huts and road making. His posting date would put him in line to have served during the latter stages of the Battle of the Somme, including a week spent on working parties whilst encamped just outside Mametz Wood, immediately after which he would have taken part in 151st Brigade's 5 November attack on the Butte de Warlencourt (Warlencourt-Eaucourt Knoll), part of the Battle of the Ancre. In this attack, Gird Trench, running north east to south west behind the Butte, was 1/6th DLI's objective.
As the battalion history notes, "On the night of Saturday, the 4th November, X, Y and Z Companies took over the front line in preparation for an attack on the Butte de Warlencourt on the Sunday morning. Zero had been fixed for 9.15 a.m. and the relief was not complete, owing to the extremely bad state of the trenches, till 9 a.m. The battalion was disposed for the attack with X Company on the right, Y in the centre, Z on the left and W in support, with the 9th Battalion on the left flank and the 8th on the right... The enemy position eas exceptionally strong, the trenches from which the attack started were so muddy that several men were drowned in them, and the time for preparation was so short that the attack broke down almost as soon as it started."
Although the Butte and part of Gird Trench was partially secured, a failure to consolidate the position meant that 1/6 and 1/8 DLI had to withdraw, leaving 1/9 DLI on the other side of the Butte to face a series of German counterattacks which forced a withdrawal after dark. The Brigade suffered almost a thousand casualties in the attack.
Harry Cruddace, also of the 1/6th, gives a short account of the attack quoted in 'The Somme, 1916: The Strip of Murdered Nature':
"Zero hour was almost upon us. Serious men gazed into one another's faces and some muttered thoughts of God and their loved ones. Chums clasped hands and said "Cheerio lad". Immediately the first wave made off they were met by terrific fire and crumpled up like snow in summer. We held on and the 9th Durhams reached a quarry on the edge of the Butte. I took up position with the gun and opened fire on the opposing troops."
Although not stated, it was presumably sickness which caused him to be posted home on 11 December 1916. The battalion was resting in billets at Warloy during this period, following its bloodying at the Warlencourt-Eaucourt Knoll the previous month.
Convalescence at home:
On 12 February he was admitted to Woodcote Park Military Convalescent Hospital, Epsom, Southern Command, being discharged from there on 15 March 1917. Following on this, a further posting to the 5th (Reserve) Battalion, Durham Light Infantry took place on 24 March 1917 (possibly to No.8 Company). On 27 May 1917 he was again posted overseas.
On active service in France again, May 1917-on:
Pte Robinson disembarked at Boulogne on 27 May 1917 and was posted to 35 Infantry Base Depot on the same day. He was posted from 35 Infantry Base Depot on 9 June 1917 (making his will the following day) to 6th (presumably again 1/6th) Durham Light Infantry and on 25 June 1917 is recorded as having joined the unit in the Field. During the time of his absence the battalion had taken part in the Battle of Arras and was at the time of his rejoining it in divisional reserve near Boisleux-au-Mont.
After a fairly quiet three months in the Arras area, alternating between the front line (Henin), support (Neuville-Vitasse) and reserve (Mercatel), he would have moved up to the Ypres Salient with the battalion in late October. Here, just inside the remains of Houthulst Forest, he would have taken part in the Second Battle of
Passchendaele, 26 October to 10 November 1917, in which the battalion held and, by pushing their posts out under cover of night, advanced the line (described as "a series of waterlogged shell holes, which were troubled considerably by low-flying aeroplanes") by 200 yards in the sector. In consideration of the danger of being relieved in a position reached by a six mile walk on duck board tracks over devastated land under artillery fire, the battalion did one six day tour in the sector rather than the proposed four and two. After some time out of the line at Watten, December saw the battalion take over the line in Passchendaele Village itself, alternating between that an divisional reserve at Brandhoek (where Christmas Day 1917 was spent).
Wounded, March 1918:
From 6 February 1918 Pte Robinson had leave to England, probably whilst the battalion was encamped at St Omer. In early March the the battalion made its way once again to the Somme sector, there to form part of 5th Army reserve, and it was from this that it first went into the partially-completed Green Line at Beuzy on the night of 21 March. This was followed by successive withdrawals west of the Somme via Cardigny and Le Mesnil (in both of which places the battalion fought actions) as the German attack was pressed home. Pte Robinson was recorded as wounded in the Field, on 27 March 1918. This would place him in the midst of Operation Michael, the German Spring Offensive, quite possibly during W, X and Z Companies' counterattack to regain the battalion's lost position during the Battle of Rosieres. The 6th Durham Light Infantry were in the Rosieres Line about a mile south-east of the village, along with units of the 24th brigade when the action of a Labour company in falling back caused the right flank to be exposed and required an attack to stabilise the situation. Short shooting by the artillery caused the battalion casualties later in the day, whilst a further attack of twelve waves of German troops was beaten off with rifle and machine gun fire.
The next entries in Pte Robinson's record are largely illegible but appear to relate to his evacuation via ?? Ambulance and ?? Casualty Clearing Station, thence to England per Hospital Ship St [Denis (?)] ex ??? (which presumably did not take place until 17 April). He was one of 189 Other Ranks of the battalion wounded during the fighting from 21-31 March 1918. He appeared on the War Office Daily List No. 5559 published on 7 May 1918.
Hospital and home service, April 1918-on:
He is recorded as having been hospitalised from 17 April 1918 to 2 August 1918, with Gun Shot Wounds to right forearm and left leg. During this time he appears to have been treated as posted to 73 Infantry TF Depot (Stockton on Tees), presumably for pay and rations purposes. On 8 (or 9?) August 1918, he was posted from the Depot to 5th Reserve Battalion, Durham Light Infantry and then on 24 August 1918 transferred to [Infantry] C[ommand] D[epot], Ripon, a convalescent establishment for soldiers not yet fit to return to their units. (the records are hard to decipher at this point but appear make a reference to "class ii, attributable"(?) - probably referring to the severity of the aforementioned GSW, and confirming for pensions purposes that it was attributable to military service).
Then, on 25 October he was posted again to the 5th (Reserve) Battalion, DLI, (presumably, from other records, to B Company) at Sutton-on-Hull, remaining there until at least 10 November 1918. He was discharged to the Army Z Reserve 13 February 1919. Presumably he made a full recovery from his wounds as no pension claim is recorded against him and his Soldiers Protection Certificate appears to medically categorise him as "A".
A table gives the following service:
Served at home 15 June 1916 to 5 October 1916, then France 6 October 1916 to 11 December 1916. Home again 12 December 1916 to 26 May 1917, then to France again 27 May 1917 (making his will on 10 June 1917) to 16 April 1918, returning home again 17 April 1918, and there remaining.
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